How are you guys? I’m good. I’m enjoying the change of the seasons. Don’t you love it? The nights are cool, and the days are warm. It’s perfect Autumn weather. I’m predicting change and colorful Fall here in Georgia.
A Change in Outlook
So, after struggling during the summer months, I’ve finally made progress on my manuscript, sorting out the plot and discovering new elements of the mystery.
Do you have secrets? Most people keep secrets—mostly things from our past that we don’t want to share. The characters in my fiction are secretive. These characters have something to hide or know someone else’s secret. If these secrets were found out, someone would be hurt. For me to create climactic fiction, I must delve into the psyches of both “nice” characters and a few “not-so-nice” characters. I certainly don’t want my audience to figure out who done it right away. I need the proverbial cliff hanger or hangers to keep the reader interested. Drama equals suspense equals resolution. That’s the way I like to write.
Even Victoria (Vikki) Campbell, my protagonist, has a secret. By the way, in pursuit of the bad guy or girl, Vikki will have her hands full. As a strong female character, she will find them, but it might take her to places she doesn’t want to visit—mentally, emotionally, and/or physically—places from the past and present. Vikki is tough but fragile, strong but emotional, headstrong yet vulnerable. Can’t wait to see how Vikki, with help from her colleagues and old friends, puts the puzzle together.
Please Welcome My Guest Author – Marlene Wagman-Geller
Author Marlene Wagman-Geller, who has written a dozen fascinating books, received her Bachelor of Arts from York University and her teaching credentials from the University of Toronto and San Diego State University. She recently retired after teaching high school English and history for thirty-five years. The author shares her home with her husband, Joel, daughter, Jordanna, and dog, Harley. Reviews from her eleven books have appeared in The New York Times and dozens of other newspapers such as The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, and The Huffington Post.
Marlene’s book, Women Who Launch, is part of her six-book series, Celebrating Women, is filled with inspiring true stories of strong women—activists, artists, and entrepreneurs who launched some of the most famous companies, brands, and organizations today and changed the world. It is at once a collection of biographies and a testament of female empowerment. This excerpt is about one such strong woman.
“Huff and Puff” (2005) – In a contemporary Greek myth, Arianna Stassinopoulos was born to a middle-class Athens family. From her humble beginnings, she became media mogul Arianna Huffington who launched the eponymous Huffington Post. Through intelligence, charm, and chutzpah, Arianna broke the glass ceiling of journalism, thereby taking her place beside the press barons of yore such as Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Heart. Women Who Launch shows that with enough huffing and puffing one can blow down the house once only the domain of men.
Jim Morrison of The Doors remarked, “Whoever controls the media controls the mind.” The Greek baroness of the media became a household name when her website made her a contemporary Colossus of Rhodes.
Athens born Arianna’s father was Constantine Stassinopoulos who had been incarcerated in a Nazi concentration camp for publishing an underground newspaper. Despite Constantine’s name, with its association of constancy, his eyes wandered to women other than Elli, his wife. In 1969, at age nineteen, Arianna traded the shores of the Aegean for the halls of British academia when she enrolled in Cambridge; she lived in one room, alienated from her classmates who were uncomfortable with the six-foot girl-not from their country or class.
Love lessened Arianna’s loneliness when she fell for Bernard Levin, the lionized columnist for the London Times. He was twice her age and half her size and not of her faith-he was Jewish-but Arianna was gaga for him. The fly in the romantic ointment was Levin was committed to bachelorhood, and Arianna longed for commitment. After a decade, Arianna broke off their relationship and headed for America to put distance between herself and her lost love.
Arianna ingratiated herself into a moneyed rarified circle and became the toast of the Big Apple where she socialized with Barbara Walters, Henry Kissinger, and Dan Rather. Trophy escorts at black tie events were on the arm of California governor Jerry Brown where she left behind the scent of her signature perfume, Cartier’s La Baiser Du Dragon-The Kiss of the Dragon. A detractor of the newly minted woman of the hour described her as “the most upwardly mobile Greek since Icarus;” another referred to as “the Sir Edmund Hillary of social climbers.” In 1984, Arianna left for Los Angeles to promote her book on Picasso who she portrayed as a mountain of misogyny.
At age thirty-five, desperate to clasp the brass ring of marriage, heiress Ann Getty introduced Arianna to Michael Huffington, the Texas oil tycoon. They married six months later where the bride wore mammoth diamond earrings borrowed from Princess Michael of Kent; her bridesmaid was Barbara Walters. The power couple moved to Washington where Michael pursued a political career masterminded by his wife who a journalist referred to as a “right-wing lady Macbeth.” The girl from the country who gave birth to drama had more than her fair share: after the birth of their two daughters, Michael dropped the tidbit that he had engaged in adulterous affairs-with men. After their divorce, Arianna claimed she had been unaware of hubby’s homosexual inclinations, but many believed she had been blinded by bling. A friend of hers remarked, “Honey, when they fixed me up with Michael in Houston, I knew he was gay at shrimp cocktails, and Arianna’s smarter than I am.”
After transitioning to the political left, Arianna lost out on a bid for California governor to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Ever versatile, Arianna launched the Huffington Post where bloggers were celebrity pals such as Norman Mailer, Larry David, and Nora Ephron. Initially, the online news site attracted barbs aimed at its founder such as one that described Arianna as “an intellectual lap dancer.” Nevertheless, it found favor with AOL who purchased the Huffington Post in 2011 for $315 million.
Regardless of one’s perspective on LaHuff, opponents take heed: as with the big bad wolf if angered, Arianna can “Huff and puff….”
Check out this author at the following: https://marlenewagmangeller.com
https://amazon.com/author page/ and https://www.facebook.com/marlene.wagman.5
Thank you, Marlene!
Don’t forget, my novel, Relative Consequences, is available on the following sites:
BookShop – https://bit.ly/3IMV1Nk
Amazon – https://amzn.to/3GN4l1M
Barnes & Noble – https://bit.ly/35BMdLW
Kobo – https://bit.ly/3IStGKl
BooksAMillion – https://bit.ly/3OifwDp
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October will be Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so my guest author in October will be, Cara Bertoia (Debby Beece) who will introduce her new book, The Perfect Breasts, a story about boobs. The novel, which debuts on September 29, mixes family lore with imagination in a compelling tale about loss, longing, and love.
Thanks for stopping by,
Jody
Jody Herpin 